Sydney coach Andrew Gaze played down talk of an NBL title after the Kings kept the pressure on NBL leaders Perth with a fourth straight win on Sunday in Wollongong. After coming from 15 down to upstage the league-leading Wildcats by a point on Friday night in Perth, the second-placed Kings boosted their record to 9-4 with a convincing 83-68 defeat of the Illawarra Hawks. Sydney will be favoured to beat the struggling Taipans in Cairns on Thursday night, but Gaze said no-one in the club was getting carried away with the run of wins. "We've got some tough games coming up, and my butterflies in the belly are the same when we're playing Cairns or playing Perth in Perth or Melbourne in Melbourne," Gaze said. "You put any of the other seven of the teams in front of us and there's not one where you go 'thank God we've got them'. We are so far from even thinking about the playoffs. "In my first season here we were 9-5 or something and we ended up 13-15. This is a different team with different personalities, but if we don't continue to work hard or even harder, we've got problems." The Wildcats (11-3) wrap up round nine with Monday night's heavyweight clash with Melbourne United in Melbourne. While the Kings enjoyed a perfect weekend, the hapless Taipans' suffered another loss to remain entrenched at the bottom of the ladder. Cairns went down 89-78 at home to the New Zealand Breakers and have just a single victory from 12 games. The Breakers (5-8) ended a run of losses and breathed life into their final four hopes, as did the Adelaide 36ers with their 101-91 road win over the Brisbane Bullets. The Sixers (6-8) are sharing fifth spot with Illawarra and will like their chances at home against Cairns on Saturday night. The Bullets (7-7) were coming off impressive back to back wins over Melbourne before being brought back to earth by the Sixers and face a tough test at home against Perth on Friday. Australian Associated Press

Title talk still a no go for Sydney Kings

Sydney coach Andrew Gaze played down talk of an NBL title after the Kings kept the pressure on NBL leaders Perth with a fourth straight win on Sunday in Wollongong.

After coming from 15 down to upstage the league-leading Wildcats by a point on Friday night in Perth, the second-placed Kings boosted their record to 9-4 with a convincing 83-68 defeat of the Illawarra Hawks.

Sydney will be favoured to beat the struggling Taipans in Cairns on Thursday night, but Gaze said no-one in the club was getting carried away with the run of wins.

"We've got some tough games coming up, and my butterflies in the belly are the same when we're playing Cairns or playing Perth in Perth or Melbourne in Melbourne," Gaze said.

"You put any of the other seven of the teams in front of us and there's not one where you go 'thank God we've got them'. We are so far from even thinking about the playoffs.

"In my first season here we were 9-5 or something and we ended up 13-15. This is a different team with different personalities, but if we don't continue to work hard or even harder, we've got problems."

The Wildcats (11-3) wrap up round nine with Monday night's heavyweight clash with Melbourne United in Melbourne.

While the Kings enjoyed a perfect weekend, the hapless Taipans' suffered another loss to remain entrenched at the bottom of the ladder.

Cairns went down 89-78 at home to the New Zealand Breakers and have just a single victory from 12 games.

The Breakers (5-8) ended a run of losses and breathed life into their final four hopes, as did the Adelaide 36ers with their 101-91 road win over the Brisbane Bullets.

The Sixers (6-8) are sharing fifth spot with Illawarra and will like their chances at home against Cairns on Saturday night.

The Bullets (7-7) were coming off impressive back to back wins over Melbourne before being brought back to earth by the Sixers and face a tough test at home against Perth on Friday.